2016/06/30 by Nigel T. Bishop, Luciano Rezzolla · 4 citations
Physics and Astronomy · #Cosmology and Gravitation Theories #Einstein field equations #General relativity #Gravitation #Gravitational redshift #Gravitational wave #Linearized gravity #Numerical relativity #Pulsars and Gravitational Waves Research #Quadrupole #Quantum Chromodynamics and Particle Interactions #Radiative transfer #gr-qc
paper · pdf · doi:10.1007/s41114-016-0001-9
110 pages, matches version accepted in Living Reviews of Relativity; supplementary macro files available in the source tar
openalex created_date 2016/06/24 · arxiv created 2016/07/04 · openalex publication_date 2016/10/04 · arxiv updated 2017/02/08 · openalex updated_date 2026/08/05
A numerical-relativity calculation yields in general a solution of the Einstein equations including also a radiative part, which is in practice computed in a region of finite extent. Since gravitational radiation is properly defined only at null infinity and in an appropriate coordinate system, the accurate estimation of the emitted gravitational waves represents an old and non-trivial problem in numerical relativity. A number of methods have been developed over the years to "extract" the radiative part of the solution from a numerical simulation and these include: quadrupole formulas, gauge-invariant metric perturbations, Weyl scalars, and characteristic extraction. We review and discuss each method, in terms of both its theoretical background as well as its implementation. Finally, we provide a brief comparison of the various methods in terms of their inherent advantages and disadvantages.